English 5365 Week Eight Post
Topic: Think about all you've read in Baron, Lanham, and Williams--as well as the presentations and discussions you've seen. Define style (again). And, list out as many elements of style as you can. Feel free to borrow from peers' ideas in their blogs, too. You might indicate which are hardest for your to see in your own writing.
In my week 2 blog post, I defined style as, "the specific presentation chosen for a particular audience for a specific topic or field of study." My definition still holds up in part, but style overall is more complex in that authors have very specific reasons for the stylistic choices that they make, even if the reason is simply emulating the style most often seen their fields.
Williams does not clearly define style in his book, despite the title. The ten lessons come together to present one ideal of style, but no simple, concrete definition is given. Williams states, "We are ethical writers when we would willingly put ourselves in the place of our readers and experience what they do as they read what we have written" (p. 150). Williams lessons lead us toward a style that complies with his idea of ethical writing.
However, I think that style goes beyond ethical writing. Lawyers and politicians write in a manner that could not be called ethical by the definition given above, yet they still have style. It is a dense, cumbersome, and often painful style, but it is still a style. And, it is the style considered to be appropriate for their field and purpose. The purpose sometimes seems to be to ensure job security by writing in a manner than no one else can understand, but that is beside the point.
Clarity, Brevity, and Sincerity are not always that hallmarks of appropriate style. Lanham writes, "What proves to be really practical in the practical real world is a full and shrewd conception of why people behave as they do. Whether you are trying to sell them an automobile or get them to save electricity, you'll find that appeals to plain purpose seldom do the trick. The really persuasive people have an instinctive grasp of the radical diversity of human motives, of the ever-changing mixture of purpose, game, and play" (p. 8).
In my week 2 blog post, I defined style as, "the specific presentation chosen for a particular audience for a specific topic or field of study." My definition still holds up in part, but style overall is more complex in that authors have very specific reasons for the stylistic choices that they make, even if the reason is simply emulating the style most often seen their fields.
Williams does not clearly define style in his book, despite the title. The ten lessons come together to present one ideal of style, but no simple, concrete definition is given. Williams states, "We are ethical writers when we would willingly put ourselves in the place of our readers and experience what they do as they read what we have written" (p. 150). Williams lessons lead us toward a style that complies with his idea of ethical writing.
However, I think that style goes beyond ethical writing. Lawyers and politicians write in a manner that could not be called ethical by the definition given above, yet they still have style. It is a dense, cumbersome, and often painful style, but it is still a style. And, it is the style considered to be appropriate for their field and purpose. The purpose sometimes seems to be to ensure job security by writing in a manner than no one else can understand, but that is beside the point.
Clarity, Brevity, and Sincerity are not always that hallmarks of appropriate style. Lanham writes, "What proves to be really practical in the practical real world is a full and shrewd conception of why people behave as they do. Whether you are trying to sell them an automobile or get them to save electricity, you'll find that appeals to plain purpose seldom do the trick. The really persuasive people have an instinctive grasp of the radical diversity of human motives, of the ever-changing mixture of purpose, game, and play" (p. 8).
Style then is the specific presentation, chosen by the author to serve his or her chosen purpose, for a specific audience. That purpose could be the ethical writing imagined by Williams or it could be to confuse, impress, copy, etc.
Elements of style include: elegance, balance, symmetry, rhythm, shape, cohesion, coherence, emphasis, concision, correctness or grammar, punctuation, word choice, voice, point of view, actors/characters/actions, opacity, transparency, and audience awareness. I often find myself focusing on concision to the detriment of other parts. I find that, if I focus too hard on any of them, I cannot write at all.
Elements of style include: elegance, balance, symmetry, rhythm, shape, cohesion, coherence, emphasis, concision, correctness or grammar, punctuation, word choice, voice, point of view, actors/characters/actions, opacity, transparency, and audience awareness. I often find myself focusing on concision to the detriment of other parts. I find that, if I focus too hard on any of them, I cannot write at all.
posted by Jessica Badger at
5:35 PM
2 Comments:
I agree. Style is linked to purpose, or lack thereof. This is how we know whether or not writers care about what they write and for whom they write.
You say that if you focus too hard on the elements of style, you cannot write. Does a self-conscious awareness of style work better for revision than for writing?
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